409 – Romance and Cigarettes

Post-Chicago, just about any movie musical was fodder for awards buzz, especially if they boasted a cast as stacked as Romance and Cigarettes. A jukebox musical from the mind of John Turturro, the film stars James Gandolfini as a New York construction worker whose life goes into tumult when he cheats on his wife (Susan Sarandon) with a younger redhead (Kate Winslet). Bizarrely profane and minimally plotted, the film thudded onto the festival scene in 2005 and didn’t see a theatrical release until Turturro self-distributed it in 2007.

This episode, we talk about Turturro’s Best Actor chances this season with The Only Living Pickpocket in New York and his under-rewarded career as an actor. We also discuss Gandolfini breaking away from The Sopranos with movies, the film’s strange catalog of disconnected songs, and a punk girl group of Mary-Louise Parker, Mandy Moore, and Aida Turturro.

Topics also include Film Forum, the 2005 Venice Film Festival, and Elaine Stritch: At Liberty.